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Followup-Magnepan 1.7s in a 10x13' dedicated room?

Well I brought the demo MG12s home from the dealer for the weekend and they actually worked very well in my small listening room. Everything I love about Maggies was there with a couple of surprises. First, I ended up with the speakers fairly close to the side walls, though the walls are treated. Second, I obtained the best imaging with the tweeters on the outsides. I assumed they would work better on the insides considering their close proximity to the side walls. The sound stage was wide, deep and well defined. I was able to hear and feel bass in the low 40s, which was another surprise. I give credit for that to the 4 inch thick bass traps I made myself. It's amazing what those have done for a room that literally sucked bass out of the room without them. Some recordings were a little bright, but I think I could remedy that with resistors applied to the tweeters. The dealer didn't supply with resistors to take with me. The MG 12s worked so well in fact that I'm seriously considering the 1.7s. Especially since I hope to be moving to a larger room in the future.
linesource
brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
Linesource, on the recordings that were bright, try the tweeters on the inside and see if that helps. Ultimately, floor to ceiling treatment of the corners behind the speakers may also help tame any brightness. I've been doing Maggies for 24 years, having had SMGa, 1.6, and now 3.7Rs. Most of the objections you hear to Maggies are based in fact, but their strong points and value proposition makes it worth the effort to spend some time mitigating their shortcomings.
It is good to hear that the 12s are working well in your small room. For what it is worth, I found that my 3.7s worked better in my 19x15x8 room than the 1.6s did. I think the tweeters inside, plus improvements in the crossover, made the difference.

Have fun and enjoy the music!
rhanson739
269 posts
 
Brownsfan -

Thanks for your post; I found it very helpful.

I upgraded not long ago from old 3.3/Rs to Maggie 3.7. Along the way, I wound up replacing my entire system and treating the challenging room.

I'm still dealing with 'brightness' issues. In the past, I figured it was due to having a Class-D SS amp (Spectron Musician IIIse), no tubes, and the Maggies. But my latest purchase was a PS Audio DirectStream DAC, which is incredibly detailed. Sometimes it's *very* bright.

When I can solicit the help of She Who Must Be Obeyed, I'll move the tweeters inside to see how that works. In the past we've tried that, but it seemed to shrink both the soundstage and the sweetspot.

Linesource: I added two Vandersteen 2wq subs to the system... very tight, very fast. It really adds to the bottom end of the Maggies and with the crossovers relieves some of the burden on the amp. Recommended, but they might be a bit large for your room.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"Some recordings were a little bright, but I think I could remedy that with resistors applied to the tweeters. The dealer didn't supply with resistors to take with me."

If you ask Magnepan, they'll send them to you. They didn't ask me for any money, so they probably won't charge you either.
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